October 1914: Belgium - The Peace After The Storm

In his diary entry of October 23, 1914, Felix describes his regiment's journey through Belgium to Lille, the destroyed landscape of rural Belgium and the destruction of Leuven and Lille, then the sound of the canons at the Front, even though it is 20 km away.

October 23, 1914
We're on the way to Lille, and already have 3 nights of our journey behind us. Our route so far has been Lechfeld, Augsburg, Ulm, Kannstadt, Bietigheim, Bruchsal, Mannheim and on the left-hand side of the Rhine up to Cologne. We've been fed very well everywhere, partially by the provision stations, partially due to the incredible enthusiasm of the people, who fed us with all manner of edible and drinkable stuff in every place where our train stopped. From Cologne, we travelled on to Aachen and Herbestal and then into enemy territory towards Liege. Then on past destroyed Leuven to Brussels, where we met, at a station in the suburbs, a naval division that was at the storming of Antwerp, and who were now to be sent to an undisclosed location.

Of course, we were not informed of the destination of our journey at any time. Our commander received a telegram at each of the major stations informing him of the next destination. In Brussels, we had not yet given up our hope of a good life in Antwerp, so that the command we received there to proceed to Lille came as a great surprise.

[Felix then goes on to describe the provisions they had during the journey, which also contained a large amount of red wine].

From what I have seen of Belgium so far, it is very beautiful, and I feel very sad for the country. One solitary park, with meadows of seed-green, poplars and pastures, the black and white cows that animate this picture so harmoniously, and the symbols of the country - the windmills. And everywhere the image of peace, the peace after the storm.

Then Leuven. I couldn't see one house that still possessed a roof or a window, at least not near the railway line. We saw a large number of empty railway trains that bore testimony to major military transportation.



9 a.m. We're still in a good mood, singing and playing the mouth harmonica, and making lots of good and bad jokes.

Felix in an early uniform, 1914

Lille, October 23, evening after 6 p.m. This afternoon we arrived at a station in the suburbs, shunted for a few hours, but were unable to enter Lille as the tracks had been destroyed. Everywhere, we could see the traces of defense battles, mainly in the suburbs; apparently they fought for each single house. The stronghold has been in German possession for the last three days. Approaching Lille, we had heard a distant muffled rolling; but now we could clearly hear the thunder of the canons doing their work 20 kilometers from Lille.

I saw something interesting this afternoon. We were able to see how airplanes are shot down. One little cloud appears next to another in the blue sky, and the plane forms the front point of this almost straight line. The image is not unlike a flying dragon with a tail.